


The Key

by Swan_Secrets



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Red Queen Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-26
Updated: 2016-10-26
Packaged: 2018-08-27 03:34:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8385592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swan_Secrets/pseuds/Swan_Secrets
Summary: Ruby needs assistance with a tricky situation.
This was written for Red Queen Week 2016 Prompt: “Trapped”





	

A muffled thumping partially roused Emma Swan from a deep sleep.

A second round kicked her brain into gear. Her eyes opened. The room was dark, it was still the middle of the night. She looked at her clock, the digital numerals glowing red. It was one-thirty. One-thirty. AM.

The third time the noise came Emma recognised it. Someone was knocking urgently on her front door. Who the hell would be banging on her door at this time of night?

She turned on the light and grabbed the baseball bat she kept under her bed before heading downstairs. She flicked the switch for the outside light. As she pulled open the door she raised the bat over her shoulder ready to give any threat a home run swing right to the face.

It wasn’t a goblin, troll or villain.

It was Ruby.

“What the hell Ruby?”

“Sorry, sorry,” Ruby said in a hushed voice. She was wearing a fluffy white dressing gown and a pair of sneakers. Emma wasn’t entirely sure if she was wearing anything underneath it. Ruby certainly didn’t seem to be dressed for running around at night.

“What do you want?” Emma hissed. If this wasn’t something really good she could feel fury rising up. She did not take being needlessly woken up well.

“Umm,” Ruby fidgeted with her hands and looked down at the ground.

“Ruby!”

“Sorry,” Ruby looked up and Emma could see she was blushing. “Do you, uh, do you have a spare handcuffs key?”

“A spare…? Why do you need a handcuffs key at one-thirty?” Emma asked. Her brain was waking up properly now and she noticed that Regina’s car was parked on the street, Ruby had driven it here. Regina wasn’t with her. She looked at Ruby again in her barely dressed state and the penny dropped. Ruby. Regina. Nighttime. Handcuffs. “Oh.”

Ruby’s blush deepened. “I went to uncuff her and I looked everywhere for the key but I couldn’t find it anywhere.”

“Can’t she just,” Emma waved her hand, “magic her way out of them.”

“They’re a special pair, enchanted so magic doesn’t work on them, only a key. We had to get them because Regina kept cheating and poofing out of them when I was in the middle of…”

“No,” Emma held up her finger. “No, no, no. I do not need to hear the rest of that sentence.”

Ruby pressed her lips together. Yeah, that was probably the kind of details she should keep to herself.

“Mom?”

Emma turned and saw Henry was halfway down the stairs looking hardly awake. “It’s okay, go back to bed. It’s just Ruby, I need to go to the Sheriff’s Station, I’ll be right back.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yes,” Emma nodded. This was so not something she was going to explain to him. “Ruby just left something at the station and she needs to get it. Go back to sleep.”

“Okay,” Henry shrugged and went back up the stairs.

Emma put the bat down, pulled on a pair of boots and said to Ruby. “I don’t have a spare here, we’ll need to go get one.” She picked up her keys and off they went.

With Emma in her pyjamas and Ruby in her dressing gown they drove to the Sheriff’s station. It was a speedy trip on the deserted streets. Neither of them said anything, Ruby because she was embarrassed and Emma because she really did not want to know a single morsel more about what Regina and Ruby had been up to.  
When they arrived Ruby parked in the empty lot.

“Here,” Emma gave her the keys. “There should be one in the top drawer of my desk.”

“Thank you,” Ruby took the keys. “I’m so so sorry.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“Sorry.”

“Seriously. Never ever mention this,” Emma said.

Ruby nodded and got out of the car.

Emma waited until Ruby had gone inside before letting out the laugh she had been holding in.

 

 

***

 

 

Ruby fumbled with the lock and went into the Sheriff’s Station. She moved quickly in the dark, keen to get in and out. The longer she took the longer Regina had to cultivate her anger.

Ruby froze when she heard a sound. It was someone moving in the darkness.

“Hello?” Ruby called. “Who’s there?” She listened and heard another rustle of motion. She turned on the station lights, filling the office with the bright glare. She blinked as her eyes adjusted. “Show yourself!”

From behind one of the desks, not Emma’s, Mary-Margaret stood. She was clutching a top and a fancy looking bra to her bare chest. Her skirt was all ruffled up and there was a pair of frilly panties on the desk. Mary-Margaret noticed the underwear and quickly snatched them up, her cheeks flushed pink.

Mary-Margaret cleared her throat. “Hi Ruby,” she said sheepishly. She cleared her throat.

“Hey,” Ruby didn’t know where to look.

“So,” Mary-Margaret prompted. “Did you need something?”

“Yeah I just need to…”

David stood up from behind the desk. His shirt was mostly unbuttoned and his belt was undone. Mercifully his jeans were pulled up to preserve some modesty. “Sorry,” he said. “Crouching there was really tweaking my knee.“ He cocked his head looking at Ruby. "Are you wearing a dressing gown?”

“You’re questioning what I’m wearing?”

He looked down at himself. “Good point.”

“I need to get something from Emma’s desk and I’ll go and let you two..whatever,” said Ruby.

“Great idea,” David nodded, eager for this situation to be over with as soon as possible.

Ruby hurried to Emma’s desk. She pulled open the top drawer and there it was: the desperately needed key. She took it and shut the drawer and started out.

“Ruby?”

She stopped and looked back at Mary-Margaret.

“What’s…going on?” Mary-Margaret couldn’t help herself, her curiosity won out over her embarrassment.

“One day we’ll get really drunk and I’ll tell you the whole story.”

“Deal,” Mary-Margaret grinned.

With a wave Ruby hurried out.

“Now,” David tugged away the clothes Mary-Margaret was holding in front of herself, “where were we?”

Mary-Margaret giggled and reached for his jeans.

 

 

***

 

 

“What took you so long?” Emma grumbled as Ruby got back into the car.

Ruby opened her mouth to answer and then decided against it. Emma had had enough unwanted images in her mind for one night. “It took a minute to find.” She gave Emma the Sheriff’s Station keys and started the car.

Emma knew that Ruby was hiding something, but she didn’t want to ask. She had the distinct feeling that she didn’t want to know the truthful answer. She just wanted to get back home and back to bed.

After dropping off Emma back at her place (swearing that she’d never do this again and would always keep a spare key somewhere safe) Ruby drove back to Regina’s house. She totally broke the speed limit, but knowing that Emma was going back to bed and David was otherwise occupied she was confident of not getting a ticket.

Clutching the precious key she dashed into the house and up the stairs. In the bedroom she found Regina exactly as she had left her.

Regina was naked on the bed, her hands were cuffed through one of the rails of the headboard. She had a scowl on her face that could melt steel. A look that back in the Enchanted Forest would have sent the Evil Queen’s subjects fleeing in fear.

“What the fuck took you so long!” Regina growled.

“Sorry, long story,” Ruby ran across the room and onto the bed. She fumbled with the cuffs.

“Hurry up!” Regina snapped.

The key slid home into the lock and with a click it opened. Ruby undid the other cuff quickly. Regina rubbed her wrists.

“You have no idea how bad I need to pee,” Regina disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke.

Ruby tossed the handcuffs and key onto the nightstand and flopped back on the bed. She sighed. She was not looking to finding out how Regina was going to have her make this up to her. She was also dreading having to confess that she’d had to enlist Emma’s help.

While she contemplated her fate Ruby remembered. She sat up and cringed. The key for the handcuffs was at the bottom of her underwear drawer where she had put it away for safekeeping.

Ruby was definitely not going to confess that little lapse in memory.


End file.
